In my letter to Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID2) I told him that I would like permission to post his reply. Since the reply was a form letter written three weeks before I wrote to the Congressman and it doesn’t ask me not to, I’m going to post it anyway (you can find it after the jump). I suspect that someone from his office did read the entire thing since the blog was visited by someone from the house.gov domain a few days after I sent it.

You may wonder how I knew it was a form letter, in case you don’t want to read it, not only did Mr. Simpson fail to address a single thing I said, but he seems to assume that I support the resolution.

I have a buddy that works on Capital Hill who I’ll be asking for some guidance about how to proceed, but at the very least I will be making as much noise as a can. In a few day’s I’ll update you on the latest.

You may also be interested in reading the letter that the Secular Coalition of America sent to all members of the House Judiciary Committee. 

January 10, 2011

Dustin Williams

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Boise, ID 83xxx

Dear Dustin::

 Thank you for contacting me regarding the national motto, In God We Trust. I appreciate hearing from you and having the opportunity to respond.

I have heard from a number of Idahoans regarding their concern that the national motto has been pushed to the background, particularly when it comes to its display on public buildings, schools and other government buildings. That is why I signed on as a cosponsor of a resolution in the 111th Congress which reaffirms that “In God We Trust” is the national motto of the United States and encourages its display.

As the national motto, it deserves prominent display on our coins, currency, government buildings and national treasures, including the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC). Congress has fixed “In God We Trust” as a feature of our nation’s currency and coins for over 130 years and it is displayed throughout the Capitol Building. The motto first appeared on one- and two-cent coins during the Civil War as the result of an initiative by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Mint. In 1865, Congress granted the Secretary authority to inscribe other coins as well. In 1955, the inscription was extended to the currency and in 1956 the phrase was statutorily declared to be the national motto.

The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were deeply religious men who believed Divine Providence would play a large part in the shaping of the new nation.  As evidence of this, Thomas Jefferson, the original drafter of the Declaration of Independence, wrote, “When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.”  He followed in the second paragraph with, “WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

Furthermore, Alexander Hamilton, author of the Federalist papers, a signatory of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and close friend of George Washington, is known to have said, “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records.  They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”

While the Framers of the Constitution held strong religious convictions, they realized a state-sponsored religion was not appropriate for a country conceived in the ideals of individual freedoms.  The Founding Fathers made sure to extend this expression to all faiths and not just the religion they chose to follow. Never, however, would our nation’s founders have believed that expressions of faith should be disallowed in public buildings, stricken from our nation’s currency, prohibited at high-school sporting events, or abolished as part of a modern-day Pledge of Allegiance.

Like many Idahoans, I am deeply concerned about the recent trend toward judicial attacks on our religious freedoms. The freedom of religion that America’s early immigrants sought—and which the Constitution recognizes as an essential element of liberty–has become a misguided judicial imperative to ensure freedom from religion. The need for a separation of church and state meant something very different and specific when the Constitution was drafted, during an age of monarchs who asserted heavenly authority. Recent attempts to undermine our freedom of worship in the name of “political correctness” are a direct attack on the values and liberties for which our forefathers fought and died.

Because of my concern about these situations and the wider implications they have on U.S. policy, during my time in Congress I have cosponsored and supported legislation which ensures states have sole authority to determine whether the Ten Commandments may be displayed on or in public buildings, protects the Pledge of Allegiance and the national motto of “In God We Trust,” and defends freedom of expression in our nation’s houses of worship. As these important issues are addressed in Congress, you can be confident that I will continue fighting to protect the right to religious freedom.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact me about this issue. As your representative in Congress, it is important to me to know your thoughts and opinions about issues affecting our nation today. I also encourage you to visit my website, www.house.gov/simpson, to sign up for my e-newsletter and to read more about my views on a variety of issues.

Sincerely,

Mike Simpson

Member of Congress

If there’s one test that should be required to serve in congress, it would be US history. The Founding Fathers were mostly deists and far from “deeply religious.” To quote Jefferson is completely absurd for making his point since Jefferson was one of the most anti-religious of them all. As far as Jefferson’s “nature’s God,” its a deistic term meaning “that thing that created everything and disappeared,” nothing more than a pre-Darwinian god of the gaps and far from anything we can trust in.